We took it easy again this morning. Had breakfast with my normal LavAzza Gran Filtro Dark Roast coffee, and it tasted much better today with all fresh beans. I worked up a blog entry, then packed up the Hitachi 250GB IDE drive that I got paid for. We left in the Jeep around 11:20 to go ...

To Panera Bread in Parker to have lunch w/J's friend L. I had the Chipotle Chicken sandwich and J had a Pick Two of a bowl of Broccoli Cheese Soup and half a Greek Salad. We had fun visiting with L.

We stopped by the Post Office so I could pick up a registered package. It was the PT-04TM wireless flash transmitter with three receivers from China. The customs forms indicated that it contained a lens cap, and the postal worker (not a worker who had gone postal) said, "That's one heavily padded lens cap."

We stopped at the CarQuest auto parts store so I could pick up some 20A ATC fuses and alligator clips for the macerator installation.

Then we stopped at the UPS Store so I could drop off the Lee filter and Hitachi 250GB IDE drive packages, and J went to the nearby McDonald's to pick up some movies from the RedBox machine there.

Installed the Macerator Wiring

We returned to the RV around 1:25, and it was a balmy 54°F (12°C). I did some computer work, then went outside around 2:20 to start installing the macerator wiring. The Flojet Macerator Pump came with a wiring harness, but the design didn't make sense to me. There was one section of wire that was to be connected to the power source, and it had a quick-disconnect fitting that they wanted to be right at the pump. Then they had another section of wire that ran from the quick-disconnect fitting at the pump to a pistol-grip mounted switch and fuse. I couldn't see any advantage to having the quick disconnects right at the pump nor having the switch in a pistol grip. So, I wired up a switch mounted in a compartment with the dump plumbing with the quick-disconnect close to that switch. Then I used the original power-source wiring to go from the switch to the pump. I had had an ATC fuse holder from a prior project and installed that just "upstream" of the switch, then installed some alligator clips on the far end of 20 ft (6m) of 12-GA cord to run to the battery compartment on the other side of the RV. For now, I'll just store the long wire with the alligator clips coiled up in the compartment with the dump plumbing. I'll wait until we have better weather and some dry ground to lay on so I can run the wire under the RV and install it permanently. We prepped the RV to move, then left in the RV around 4:15.

Dumped Using the Macerator

We went to SJ&DilK's (J's Son J and Daughter-in-law K's) to borrow their sewer connection. I ran the 50-foot (15m) 3/4-inch (19mm) Flexogen hose from the macerator into the drain behind their washing machine, and it was just long enough. Before connecting the macerator to the RV, I tested the macerator pump and nothing happened! Then I remembered that I hadn't installed the fuse in the holder. :) With the fuse in the holder, the macerator fired right up. I connected the macerator to the RV using a 5-inch (13cm) section of clear pipe at the macerator so I could monitor the flow and then a 5-ft (1.5m) section of flexible hose to the RV. J went into the laundry room to watch the discharge end of the hose, that I had secured to the existing drain hose and fresh water hoses, to make sure we didn't have an accident. The macerator worked fine, but J sensed an odor while we were dumping. After emptying the black and gray tanks, I turned on the fresh water supply to the macerator and flushed the Flexogen hose. The whole thing worked like a charm. However, hooking up the macerator system and then stowing it takes a lot longer than dealing with our regular short dump hose, so it's not something I'd like to do all the time. But, it sure was was nice not to have to drive about half an hour one way to to go a dump station. After dumping, I filled the fresh water tank of the RV, and no, I didn't use the same Flexogen hose for the water that I had used to dump. :) After filling the fresh water tank, we stayed a little longer to use the fast Wi-Fi connection.

We returned to K's around 6:50.

We had dinner around 7:00 of Trader Joe's Butternut Squash Soup that was most tasty. I also had a ham-and-Swiss sandwich so I could chew on something.

I did some computer work, and we watched an episode of Desperate Housewives on DVD.